by cwms | May 8, 2025 | Mortgage Advice, Mortgage News, Uncategorized
Your Path to Homeownership: Essential Advice for First-Time Buyers
Embarking on the journey to buy your first home can feel overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be. With the right strategies, tools, and a little patience, you can turn your dream of homeownership into reality. Here are some essential tips for first-time buyers to guide you through the process.
Start Saving Early
The first step towards buying your own home is to start saving as early as possible. Creating a dedicated savings plan can significantly impact your ability to secure a mortgage. Consider setting up a high-interest savings account specifically for your home purchase. Regular contributions, even if they are small, can accumulate over time and put you closer to your down payment goal. Additionally, consider cutting back on discretionary spending to boost your savings rate.
Exploring Low-Deposit Mortgages
Low-deposit mortgages can be an excellent option if you don’t have a substantial amount saved up for a down payment. Many lenders now offer products that allow first-time buyers to put down as little as 5% of the property value. This can significantly reduce the initial financial barrier to entry. However, with higher deposits you get a better interest rate on your mortgage. Research and compare different lenders to find the right interest rates and terms to suit your financial situation.
Understanding Shared Ownership and New Builds
Shared ownership schemes can be a great way to step onto the property ladder without buying a home outright. This model allows you to purchase a share of a property, typically between 25% and 75%, while paying rent on the remaining share. If you’re considering buying a new-build home, look into programs like Own New, which often offer additional incentives for first-time buyers. Coombes & Wright are approved brokers for Own New, a nationwide scheme funded through a subsidy paid for by the builder. Own New’s ‘Rate Reducer’ is for people buying a new build property and offers a unique mortgage with access to lower interest rates and reduced monthly payments during the initial mortgage period. By combining these opportunities, you can make homeownership more affordable and less daunting.
Professional Mortgages for Newly Qualified Buyers
If you’ve recently completed your qualifications in a professional field, explore professional mortgages explicitly tailored for new graduates or those in fields like healthcare, law, and finance. These specialised products often come with favourable rates and flexible criteria, recognising the higher earning potential of your new career. Engaging with lenders who understand your profession can help you navigate the purchasing process more smoothly.
At Coombes & Wright, our mortgage experts support you at every step, from your first enquiry to successful completion and picking up the keys. We manage the complete mortgage and protection process for you, including all application paperwork and admin, liaising with your lender, solicitors, estate agent or new home builders. Book a free, no-obligation initial consultation to chat through your options. We will get you well on your way to owning your dream home. Happy house hunting!
Book your free no-obligation initial consultation
by admin | Jul 3, 2020 | Mortgage News
The UK has been in some form of lockdown since 23rd March. It’s impossible to know for sure what impact that had on the spread of the Coronavirus. It is, however, very clear that it has had a significant impact on people’s finances. The challenge now is to transition back into “business as usual” while still supporting those who need a bit of extra help.
The economic impact of COVID19 (so far)
Over 10 million people have received financial assistance through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (about 8 million) or Self-Employed Income Support Scheme. The CJRS was due to close at the end of July but has now been extended until the end of October. That said, the nature of the scheme is due to change slightly.
At present, the government is paying 80% of salaries up to £2500 per month and employers may (or may not) top this up to the full amount. Employers cannot ask furloughed employees to do any work for them, but employees can take second jobs and/or freelance. From August, employers will start to have to make contributions towards the scheme, but they can also start bringing employees back to work on a part-time basis. Alternatively, they could make them redundant.
Only time will tell, but, at present, it is impossible to rule out the possibility that the requiring employers to contribute directly to the furlough scheme (as opposed to indirectly through taxes) will lead to businesses reassessing their staffing needs and potentially deciding to cut back. This means that lenders may need to be prepared for more borrowers getting into difficulty, if only temporarily.
FCA measures to protect mortgage holders
Since March, both residential and buy-to-let mortgage-holders have been able to request mortgage holidays (provided that they were up-to-date with payments). Initially, these were for up to three months. In June, the FCA extended the respite period to the end of October.
Although payments are stopped, interest continues to accrue (unless the lender agrees to waive it which they are not obligated to do).
Provided that borrowers follow the correct procedure (i.e. agree the holiday with their lender rather than just cancelling payments), the payment break will be ignored by the credit-scoring agencies.
At the end of the holiday period, the borrower and the lender have to agree on a way forward. In particular, they need to establish whether the borrower can afford to go back on a standard repayment plan. If so, they need to determine how the borrower will make up the missed payments (e.g. by adding them to their regular payments or by extending the mortgage term). If not, they need to work out what potential solutions are available.
A cautious note of optimism
Although the post-Coronavirus environment could be a challenging one for lenders to navigate, it does not have to be a disaster. There are grounds for at least cautious optimism. For example, according to statistics from the Bank of England, during April, consumers paid back a record £7.4 billion in consumer credit and also increased deposits in banks and building societies by £37.3 billion.
The fact that people were able to make these payments shows that some people at least had some level of income over and above what they needed to cover their basic necessities.
There are still people in work and as more businesses reopen more people should be able to get back into earning money through active employment (as opposed to through support schemes). Even where jobs are lost, the employees in question may have savings and/or insurance to help tide them over. They may also receive redundancy payments to ease the transition.
Your property may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage.
The FCA does not regulate some forms of buy to let mortgages.
The FCA does not regulate letting agents and we act as introducers for them.
by admin | Feb 4, 2020 | Mortgage News
We are completely thrilled to be recognised by Natwest as this award looks at advisors who in their words “have gone above and beyond normal expectations”. To be nominated two years in a row tells us that we’re doing something right. To us, helping our customers is second nature, we love what we do and it’s important to us to ensure that we do it well, to be acknowledged within our industry is amazing.
We’ll all be keeping our fingers crossed come March! To find out more click here.
We’d like to take this opportunity to thank the team for all of their hard work and commitment and our customers for their loyalty and support.
James & Mike
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